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Dozens Dead as Baghdad Rocked by Massive Explosions
The centre of Baghdad was rocked by seven near-simultaneous explosions this morning, killing an estimated 100 people and wounding 250 more.
The scene near the Iraqi Foreign Ministry, left, after a massive bomb attack in Baghdad on Wednesday. (Khalid Mohammed/Associated Press)
In the deadliest attack in Iraq this year, and the most audacious one in the
capital for a long time, mortar fire and car bombs were directed towards the
main centres of power. Among the targets were the ministries of finance,
foreign affairs, health and housing, as well as the Parliament building and
the Cabinet building.
Also hit was a checkpoint on the approach roads to the fortified Green Zone. The largest explosion was across the street from the Foreign Ministry and is said to have killed 59 people. The combined total of dead and wounded is said to be 350.
Today is the sixth anniversary of a truck bombing that hit the United Nations compound in Baghdad, killing 22 people including special envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.
Nobody has so far claimed responsibility for the latest attacks, but it is likely to have been carried out by Sunni extremists trying to undermine the Shia-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, in order to re-ignite the sectarian warfare of two years ago.
Among the buildings hit in the attack was the Rasheed Hotel on the edge of the Green Zone, a popular choice with foreign visitors.
John Tipple, a UK solicitor, said: "The windows were blown out and the doors were taken out, even the door frames went. If I had been in my room at the time I would have been seriously injured or worse. Everything is locked down now. Nobody can move anywhere, nobody is getting in or out. Even our security team cannot move."
One of the bombs left a crater three metres deep and 10 metres in diameter, while the walls of the ministry compound in the Salhiyeh district were destroyed and its facade badly damaged.
Violence had been on the rise in the last few weeks with several attacks in the outskirts of Baghdad and in the north of the country. But today's coordinated bombings took place in some of the best protected areas of the city. This is a major challenge to the government ahead of national elections in less than six months.
- Posted in
21 Comments so far
Show AllDoes anyone else get the feeling that such bombings in the US would not be beyond the pale for the reactionaries behind the town-hall disruptions?
q
Sad to concur...its only a matter of time.
No
There is no reason to suspect those reactionaries were not part of the 9/11/2001 plot. The FBI apparently aided the OK City bombers, maybe deliberately, maybe due to incompetence.
The US is heading straight into the valley of perdition for all the crimes of murder, torture, illegal war, and theft that they have conducted with impunity for the past nine years! Hasn't anyone heard of the term Karma? Or heard the words of Jesus the Christ: "As you sow , so shall ye reap" ? Or know of the law of Physic's that states for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction? I completely cringe when I hear Obama or any other US politician lecture Iran or China for their human rights abuses while the US proves to be, and is considered by the majority of the worlds citizens, the greatest threat to human security today! These admonishments that come from our politicians to the leaders of other countries for their human rights violations are the epidemy of hypocricy and pathetic rhetoric.
I don't think so!
Meanwhile, notice that Common Dreams dares not make a peep about Cindy Sheehan's antiwar protest starting up. I guess that's because the Lemming Left and the chicken doves are hiding behind Obama's skirts. Disgusting!
Cindy Sheehan is starting up a new stretch of anti-war protests, today or soon? It's what I understand from your post and if this is what you mean, then how about some links? It should not be difficult to find links with a Web search, but it's a good courteosy to provide them when reporting news many readers here may not be aware of.
It certainly can't hurt to include links, anyway. And now I'll try a Web search.
"Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox: Cynthia McKinney + Sheehan to lead protests against the wars",
Dandelion Salad, Aug 17 2009
http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2009/08/17/cindy-sheehan%E2%80%99s-soapbox-cynthia-mckinney-sheehan-to-lead-protests-against-the-wars
I hope she keeps her dandelions organic.
EXCERPT:
By Cindy Sheehan
"Cynthia! – August 16, 2009 (SOAPBOX #31) – Cindy welcomes former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, “kidnapped” and imprisoned by the Israelis for seven days. Maybe she was considered dangerous for her “crime”: She actually brought CRAYONS to the children of Gaza! A heinous crime indeed! Everybody knows that we should look forward and not back when it comes to trivial matters (like systematic torture) – but intolerable evils such as distributing CRAYONS to CHILDREN (evidently) deserve the full force of (someone’s) law! What a danger to humanity!" Listen in!
Cindy Sheehan to lead protests against the wars near Obama’s vacation spot on Martha Vineyard
For immediate release:
Next week, Cindy Sheehan will join other like-minded peace activists to have a presence near the expensive resort on Martha’s Vineyard where President Obama will be vacationing the week of August 23-30.
From her home in California, Ms. Sheehan released this statement:
“There are several things that we wish to accomplish with this protest on Martha’s Vineyard.
First of all, no good social or economic change will come about with the continuation or escalation of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. We simply can’t afford to continue this tragically expensive foreign policy.
Secondly, we as a movement need to continue calling for an immediate end to the occupations even when there is a Democrat in the Oval Office. There is still no Noble Cause no matter how we examine the policies.
Thirdly, the body bags aren’t taking a vacation and as the US led violence surges in Afghanistan and Pakistan, so are the needless deaths on every side.
And, finally, if the right-wing can force the government to drop any kind of public option or government supported health care, then we need to exert the same kind of pressure to force a speedy end to the occupations.”
Cindy Sheehan will arrive on the Vineyard on Tuesday, August 25th.
For more information, or to request an interview with Cindy Sheehan please contact:
END EXCERPT
The rest of that article is for the contact information, links and information for donations, and links to (I guess, somehow or somewhat) related articles.
Her effort is recognizable as being noble, but unfortunately will not amount to much, for the protesters surely won't be anywhere near numerous and "civily unrestful" enough to really make a difference. The LIARS, CONS, war makers, ... RULE and the general population wasn't particularly active in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008; and it's become less active since. There were some fairly sizable public demonstrations, but none large enough and none lasting more than a matter of maybe a few hours, for the longest ones. That is NOT going to stop rogue government(s) that work for, are highly controlled by, ... corporations, the chiefs of them, and rich people invested in them.
Bush Jr said he was "the decider" and he wasn't; and neither is Obama. They're figureheads, front stage actors, and their masters are back-stage, out of public view. The actors need to obey or else they'll lose their positions, one way or the or an other.
Well, if that's the case, reality, then protesting against Obama for his administration's policies and therefore his, since the "buck stops with or at the President", it's the masters who need to be protested against; and they're rather many and dispersed, not located in any particular place together. They form the ruling oligarchy and have key actors in the government; such as Paul Wolfowitz, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Perle, Feith or Filth, and some others were, f.e. Of course we could add Rumsfeld and Cheney. Bush Jr was mainly a useful instrument, less "decider" than Cheney was, yet Cheney was not top boss, either. If he crossed the ruling oligarchy, then he would have also become expendable and replaced.
NO single person runs this "show". And the President can't stop it alone. Any President who'd seriously try to stop the present wars had better have very strong personal security, protection consisting only of truly reliable guards; plenty of them. He or she would surely also need an honourable Congress and Senate, and Judiciary, and this is asking for a LOT.
"But today's coordinated bombings took place in some of the best protected areas of the city."
The United States Military, the best, most powerful, most fearsome fighting forces the world has ever seen... after spending a trillion dollars and murdering a million innocents... so far has been unable to pacify one city in Iraq, Baghdad, and indeed cannot even assure security in the its best protected areas.
Are we getting the best bang for our buck here? Is there a small possibility that maybe the US should cut out this shit all over the world?
Were the bombs ours or theirs?
Joe
It's just as likely that we are behind all this. Alden Pyle, The Quiet American, is in Iraq by the thousands at this very moment, stirring the shit and making certain we NEVER leave.
I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out that the americans did this. Hell, our government staged 911, why not this? And yes, when will the next one in the US happen, and where?
It's interesting timing considering that the Iraqi government just announced they will hold a referendum on getting the US out of Iraq...and suddenly Baghdad is so unsafe...hmm, maybe the americans should stay a bit longer?
What shite this is.
The hell that America has bestowed upon the innocent people of Iraq and Afghanistan is unconscionable!
These heinous and illegal wars are not about revenge of September eleventh, two thousand and one. Nor is it about protecting the Iraqi and Afghan people. It is about Middle East hegemony, and control of Iraq and Afghanistan. You knew that though.
Sadly, the credulous American sheople aren't, because they're being dummed down by our fawning and complicit corporate media. Or they are too busy watching feckless inane programming such as HBO's "Hung" that was signed for a second season.
The American people are worse that sheep!
Before reading this article from TimesOnline/UK about the big Baghdad bombings, I scanned earlier reports on this breaking news story from Guardian/UK, AP, the NY Times, and the Washington Post on Google News.
For some reason, the two British newspapers referenced the timing of these dramatic bombing incidents to the sixth anniversary of a notorious bombing that killed the UN humanitarian relief envoy Sergio de Mello, an event that is often identified as constituting the beginning of the anti-American "insurgency" in post-Saddam Iraq.
For whatever editorial reasons, none of the American-generated news accounts of these same tragic recent explosions in Baghdad chose to mention the symbolic connection back to this signature event, from back early in the bad old days of the Bush/Bremer era when the US mission was prematurely declared accomplished. The US media accounts focused instead upon speculation that the bombings are a Sunni versus Shiite thing, or an anti-Maliki government thing, or maybe a spike in violence caused by US troop withdrawal from the Iraqi cities.
I wonder why this is?
Maybe tomorrow, or the day after, the mainstream US media will pick up on the connection to the Mello assassination debacle's sixth anniversary, and the start of the popular Iraqi uprising against the US occupation presence.
Let us wait and see.
Bill from Saginaw
Could you provide links for the articles you read from the two UK newspapers?
"For whatever editorial reasons, none of the American-generated news accounts of these same tragic recent explosions in Baghdad chose to mention the symbolic connection back to this signature event, from back early in the bad old days of the Bush/Bremer era when ...."
Is there really a "symbolic connection" as you describe, or might it "simply" be a similarity that doesn't necessarily involve any real connection as we'd normally understand by "connection"?
Was the bombing that killed "UN humanitarian relief envoy Sergio de Mello" really committed by Iraqi Resistance, was this truly proven, or is it only what we were told? If proven, then what was the proof, for I recall having read about the incident, but don't recall having read about any actual proof that Iraqi Resistance committed this bombing.
Iraqi Resistance didn't commit some, if not many, of the bombings that we were told and would still be told were committed by them. F.e., some, if not many, of the "suicide" car bombings weren't really suicide bombings; there were no bodies in the cars, some of the cars or vehicles that were used for killing Iraqi civilians, as well as police.
The U.S. and U.K. did have covert ops for committing bombings and killings to be blamed on Iraqis. Two British soldiers were caught in Basra during September 2005 or 2006, driving in with a car loaded with guns and, I believe, explosives, while the two soldiers were dressed in Arab fashion. I recall having read about another case in which some foreigner working for the Occupation forces was found driving a car loaded with explosives in a northern part of Iraq, but this was a much less reported story. The blowing up of the historically important mosque in Samara or Samarra (spelling?) evidently was NOT committed by Iraqi Resistance and did fuel Iraqi Shi'ite anger against Iraqi Sunnis. It was possibly Mike Whitney, William Bowles, ..., I forget precisely who the author was, but a reputable, respectable one, who wrote about what could be learned of the bombing of that very important mosque and part of what the article related was from what was learned from a caretaker or janitor ..., someone who worked there, inside the mosque and who was caught in there while bombs were being planted. The Iraqi couldn't just get up and leave, for he would have been immediately spotted and surely killed, so he stayed inside the mosque, hidden as well as he could manage. The security in the area of the mosque was very high and provided by both U.S. and Iraqi forces. Iraqi Resistance could not have committed the bombing, but was blamed for it for the purpose of propaganda of ... as usual, LIES.
The Salvador Option has been conducted in Iraq during the present war there. BRusselsTribunal.org used to have a whole section dedicated to this topic and one of the authors with articles to be very impressed (and frightened) by there was Max Fuller. If what he wrote on this topic is really what happened, then we're looking at major Salvador Option nightmare in Iraq.
Max Fuller is or at least was a member of the BRussells Tribunal Advisory Committee.
"A recent case study in the dynamics of occupation and sectarianism",
http://www.brusselstribunal.org/DiyalaFuller.htm
"The Salvador Option exposed
Who's Blowing Up Iraq? Evidence shows that bombs are planted by occupation forces",
http://www.brusselstribunal.org/BritishBombers.htm
The URL says BritishBombers, but the page is an index and about more than only the British bombers, who somewhat, or more strongly, remind of some British SAS operations conducted with the injuring and, I guess, killing of some British citizens, to then blame these attacks on the Irish. Covert black ops definitely aren't only used by the U.S.
That index has been seriously updated since I last visited and read there, which was a few years ago, not long after the bombing of the mosque in Samarra and the discovery of the two British soldiers dressed as Arabs, ... driving into Basra.
So, again, was it really proven who committed the bombing that killed "UN humanitarian relief envoy Sergio de Mello", among others? It would have be "favourable" for the U.S. and I doubt it would or could have been favourable for the Iraqi Resistance.
And has it been proven who's really responsible for the bombings in Baghdad today?
Check out how difficult it is to commit bombings within the securitized area of the Green Zone, as well enough described in the following video.
"Questioning security in Baghdad's Green Zone: 19 Aug 09" (2:43), AlJazeeraEnglish, Aug 19 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0EcNK24dVk
The following is a shorter AlJ piece on these bombings of today.
"Scores dead as blasts strike central Baghdad: 19 Aug 09" (1:33), AlJazeeraEnglish, Aug 19 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hohcUMnomHs
It's looking like someone or somebodies really want the U.S. to remain occupiers of Iraq and this definitely would not be Iraqi Resistance, for the true IR, and MOST Iraqis, definitely wants the US et al OUT. PM Nouri al-Maliki would really like for the U.S. to stay, and why? Well, to get rich and to keep from being lynched by the population, perhaps?!
Jeevee
No more comments unless or until the odd "proof" that you are who you say you are, is taken out. Or at least, let's have a courteous explanation by the editors.
Now that post really makes no sense. So, it seems to be ... like ..., say, nonsense.
Definitely check the AlJazeeraEnglish videos linked in my reply to the post by Bill from Saginaw. The first of the two linked AlJ. videos is very important in terms of the description of it being rather impossible to commit bombings in the Green Zone securitized area without inside assistance of the kind that would have perimeter, entrance guards NOT perform inspections as they're supposed to do; and this involves more than one set of security guards that someone coming in to the Green Zone would have to be cleared by. There are either two or three of these security barriers, or whatever they're called, to pass through. So, again, it'd be impossible to drive a vehicle with explosives into the Green Zone without the guards being ordered to specially allow the vehicles to enter without inspecting them.
Guards of course should NEVER accept to follow such orders and should immediately report them; although that might lead to some mysteriously killed security guards when on coffee breaks, say.
So, the vehicle(s) with the explosives were specially cleared for entry without being inspected, at all, meaning someone with a high level of authority over the guards gave them the order to just let the vehicle(s) enter without interference.
Okay. It's easy-as-pie to figure that much out.
It's similarly easy to understand that the only people who could "benefit" and PROFIT from such bombings certainly are NOT the Iraqi Resistance (IR) and most of the Iraqi population, for they want the U.S. et al OUT, OUT, OUT ... yesteryears ago and still want these bastards OUT, OUT, OUT, ....
The U.S. and puppets like PM Nouri al-Maliki, however, really don't want the U.S. to leave. They lust over this cushy relationship they have and would really like to stay together ... much, much, very much longer.
The Parliament was bombed or a powerful bomb exploded just outside of the Parliament anyway, and there's probably resistance within it against the U.S. staying in Iraq. Perhaps scaring the daylights out of such Parliament members might trick them into accepting that the U.S. remain in Iraq for a "while" longer (?).
I don't know about the latter, not knowing how much of that kind of opposition or resistance exists, today, in the Iraqi Parliament, but there are surely a fair number of members who want the U.S. to WITHDRAW. And, again, the majority of Iraqis, including the Iraqi Resistance, could not possibly "benefit" or profit from these bombings in Baghdad today.
More "Salvador Option" in Iraq BS, hell.
It's not mistaken to consider this as a modus operandi of the U.S. imperialists, oligarchs, .... And PM Nouri al-Maliki surely realises or knows that if and when the U.S. leaves, then he might be much better off hitching a lift out of Iraq with the U.S., at the same time, for life surely won't be made comfortable for him if he chose to stay there after the U.S. et al left.
Some people don't want the U.S. to leave and these people certainly aren't the IR and most Iraqis.
A year ago, I would have said: The surge is working!
Now: The surge worked!
Dumb news report video; NO sound, no voice, no reporter telling viewers what's shown, only special effects sounds at the start and end. What, what a news report.